Alpha: Life of an Internet
by Sytel
Summary: The story of Alpha's life, from the first recognition of its sentience to the end of Battle Network 3, told from several viewpoints... including its own. Now with Alpha's perspective on the events of MMBN3!
1. Making Contact Tadashi's POV

_Joint effort between Namnesor and Sytel, of the Bob and George forums. _

_1. Making Contact (Tadashi's POV)_

I had an understandable sense of responsibility towards Alpha, or as it was popularly known, the Internet. It was, after all, my creation. I'd come up with a number of networking technologies, actually, but Alpha was the first one to become a household name around the world.

So when Alpha started having mysterious errors and glitches with no discernible cause or pattern, I felt that it was my job to find out why.

I took my work seriously-- perhaps _too_ seriously. I hadn't been home to see my family in three days-- or was it four? I'd lost track of time from staying up every night, drinking countless cups of coffee and looking through error reports and event logs from innumerable servers.

It was a seemingly-normal night when I finally reached the answer, just as any other. For me, however, it had all become a mish-mash of time; days and nights bled together as I got closer to unravelling the mystery.

The attacks, if they were attacks, didn't seem to be coming from some group of netjackers; they originated from seemingly random points, and the only apparent pattern was that they seemed to come from main backbone servers more often than not. That didn't help, because the security on those servers was the best in the world. And their security logs showed no accesses-- unauthorized or otherwise-- of the sort that would be required to produce these errors...

It had started out small and benign; things would work oddly, but not problematically. A 10-megabyte file downloading in mere seconds, when it would ordinarily take half an hour. Long-missing files popping back into view when they were needed. How long this had been going on, I didn't know, because most people had assumed that it was just their own computers acting up and hadn't told anyone. Nobody had thought to compare notes until later.

Things started to degenerate. Emails had strange lines of text in them, text that the senders swore they hadn't meant to put in, seemingly crossing wires from some other email in the mail server. Animations and some large images disappearing from web pages, erased first from display and then from the HTML itself, with the site maintainers swearing up and down that they hadn't touched it. Things that users _could_ have done, through neglect or error, but when enough of them started giving the same story... people who knew how Alpha worked began to wonder if something really was going on.

And then it passed the point of there being any question. Every Alpha-connected device in an entire city going berserk at once, even if the devices had totally different network connections that didn't correlate to geography. The printers in a grid of city blocks that each printed out a single page of black and white, and when the pages were assembled in the same pattern as the city blocks, it spelled out HEAR THE WIRES. The national anthem broadcast in every school in the country being replaced with online radio stations one morning.

Who could be doing this, though? And why? It would take phenomenal resources: the ability to crack seemingly every Alpha-connected machine in the world, from backbone servers to automated tools running on obscure proprietary operating systems. And whoever was doing it wasn't using this power to make a political statement, or transfer money from people's bank accounts; they were seemingly doing it just to prove that they could. A terrorist group might do something like that, but once they'd made their point, wouldn't they identify themselves and start making demands? And yet nobody had stepped forward to claim responsibility for this.

It would require phenomenal computing power and networking hardware to pull something like this off. It was as if whatever was causing these errors had the ability to be everywhere Alpha was...

Maybe it was just the late nights without sleep and the overdose of coffee and error reports, but a strange idea crept into my mind, and although I knew it was crazy, I couldn't dislodge it.

_Maybe Alpha itself is doing this._

The idea was curiously tempting, although I didn't even know what it could mean. These events were no mere outbursts of random data. They were ipurposeful/i, like the office printer incident, clearly orchestrated by someone with a plan.

That haunting, cryptic phrase from the printer incident ran through my mind. _Hear the wires..._

Maybe it was a message. Maybe some of the other glitches had been messages too? I started browsing through the reports with renewed interest, searching for any that might shed some light on what the mysterious force behind them was trying to say.

There was one definite common factor running through nearly all of the data reports; the "strange happenings" weren't particularly malicious. While missing files could be viewed as such, they were never important enough to break something, only to be noticed.

Though, the early bug reports were decidedly tame. Unexplained network lag and, conversely, unexplained network speed bursts; nothing to truly be worried about, until now, at least.

I started putting the pieces together, but the closer I got, the worse I felt. What _if_ Alpha was doing all of this? What would I do? How would I react? Something like this had never happened before, precedent was being set every moment.

It fell down to one "test", one probe that would confirm or deny all of my theories. Whatever the result, something large was on the horizon, and this would set it all in motion...

I decided to end the debate. At least, I figured this would end the debate. In truth, it was an extremely far-fetched idea.

I opened a chat window, and typed in the recipient's name as "Alpha".

(THikari) Hello? Alpha?

(Alpha) Hello, Dr. Hikari.


	2. Loss Yuichiro's POV

_2: Loss (Yuichiro's POV)_

The last night I would ever see my dad alive was a strange one, hard to remember. He came home with an intense look on his face, and it didn't leave the entire time he was here.

Prior to that, though, he was the epitome of excitement. The day he found out Alpha was sentient, he came home, raving, with giant bags under his eyes. Saying things like "Alpha said hello! Alpha said hello!" Haruka freaked out, and it even took me an hour or two to understand what he meant.

But, on this particular day, he came in, looking at the ground, as if he was deep in thought. Even Gow was wary of him.

We spent the night talking, and he explained to me more about Alpha and its sentience. Suffice it to say, I was fascinated. A program gaining true artificial intelligence? Straight out of a science fiction novel.

Then, he told me of this final test of his. He was going to investigate Alpha firsthand, by meeting it in cyberspace.

"What are you talking about, Dad?" I asked. "How is this even possible?"

"It's a system that Alpha showed me the schematics to. It interprets a human's brainwave patterns into navi-like signals. It, in essence, digitizes you."

I shuddered. I didn't like the idea. What if it messed up? What if it killed him? What if...

"This is why I'm bringing it up, Yui," Dad continued, "Should anything happen to me..."

"Don't be stupid!" I pleaded angrily, slamming my fist on the kitchen table. "If something happens to you! I can't let you go through with something this dangerous!"

He, however, wouldn't listen. He insisted that this needed to be done, to see what exactly Alpha was like, and to teach it proper behaviour. He had always been this way, unmoveable when he set himself to something. I gave up trying to convince him and left him in the kitchen.

I had several nightmares that night, mostly about Dad and Alpha. I really wanted him to not go through with this. I intended to make one last plea to him the next morning.

I was too late, though. When Haruka and I woke up, he was gone. All that was in his bed was Gow, curled up at the foot.

I gasped. "Dad..." I said, then grabbed the telephone. I hurriedly punched in his cell number, but the phone on the other end just rang. No answer. Same with his work phone.

"What's wrong, Yui?" Haruka asked when she saw me holding the receiver in a trembling hand. She never did pay much attention to the things Dad and I talked about from work; she wasn't the technical type.

"It's Dad," I said, my voice shaking. "I'm afraid he might have done something very dangerous." I dashed for the door. "I've got to get to SciLab right away!"

"Wait!" Haruka said. "I'm coming with you!"

I didn't see any reason for her not to. It wasn't likely that Dad's plan would endanger us. Besides, I needed her support at a time like this. "All right. But hurry!"

We ran out into the car, bare-footed-- I think I was still in my pyjamas. The morning traffic was moving so slowly. My knuckles were white on the steering wheel all the way to SciLab.

"What is it, Yui?" Haruka asked when we were getting close. "What did Tadashi say he was going to do?"

"Alpha..." I said weakly. "He wants to meet Alpha."

Haruka shook her head. "Didn't he already chat with him, or something? Wasn't that what you two were talking about the other night?"

"You don't understand," I said. "He wants to meet Alpha iin person./i In the computer. Alpha gave him the plans to some device that it says will let him digitize his mind, but..." I tried to even out my breathing. Deep breaths, deep breaths. "There's no guarantee that it'll work. He admits that it might kill him. But he's dead set on it."

"Why?" Haruka asked, her eyes wide. "I don't understand."

"I don't either!" I said. "Maybe it has to do with that stuff he was talking about after Mom left-- about uploading people's minds to computers, and linking them all together, and living forever in other galaxies, or whatever that was all about." I sighed. "I thought he'd gotten past that by now... We're here."

Sure enough, we were finally pulling into the SciLab parking lot. I parked in the closest spot to the door-- it might have been a handicapped spot, I wasn't paying attention-- and dashed inside, Haruka following. People probably gave me odd looks, but my mind was focused on only one thing: getting to Dad's office.

There might still be time to talk him out of this. I'd never forgive myself if I was too late because I decided to take my time. I had to iknow./i

Finally I reached his office. I shoved the door open, panting a little. I'd been running faster than my adrenaline could carry me. I looked around the office, but Dad wasn't there.

"Where's Dr. Hikari?" I asked a woman at a desk near his. She must be one of his co-workers, she might know!

"He's working on a project in the R&D lab today," she said calmly.

"Where's that?"

"Third floor, down four doors and to the right." She went back to work as if nothing was wrong. I was already out the door and on my way.

When I got to the third floor, I tore through the hallway and reached the R&D lab doors. I tried to push them open, but they didn't budge. Pulling didn't help either. The doorknob didn't move, and my intern-level ID card in the reader didn't even help. It was locked.

I knocked hard on the door, shouting into the room, but there was no response. It was totally silent. If Dad was in there, he either didn't hear me or didn't want to let me in.

I looked around for anything that could be used to open the doors, but there was nothing nearby. It was about this time Haruka came up behind me, looking just about as worried as I did.

My eyes fell onto the small, frosted window on the door, and I had an idea.

I reeled back and rammed my fist into the window. The glass shattered, cutting my hands in several places.

"Yui! What are you doing!" Haruka exclaimed as I pulled my hand out and reached in with my other arm.

"We don't have time to wait!" I yelled, scrambling for the doorknob, cutting my arm in the process. Finally, I caught the handle on the inside, and opened the door.

My first, and the only sight I can remember from the R&D Lab, is the inert body of my father, sitting in a bizarre chair, with a strange "helmet" on his head. I stood, frozen, at the door. Haruka ran inside and shook his arm.

Haruka looked back at me with a horrified face. "He's... he's dead."

I ran back to Dad's desk, turning the computer monitor on. "Alpha! You son of a bitch!" I screamed, my face streaming with tears. "What the hell did you do to my Dad!"

Alpha didn't respond. I wasn't even sure it could hear my voice.

In the end, Tadashi Hikari was pronounced dead, and Alpha was locked away in a secure server of SciLab. I sat there, in the R&D labs, as policemen investigated the scene and paramedics bandaged my arms. I was crying into Haruka's lap. It couldn't end like this. There was so much left unsaid.

I felt empty for weeks afterward. Everything I did, I did so out of necessity and repetition. I followed in my father's footsteps, becoming a navicist just like him.

I vowed never to make the same mistake my father made. I promised myself, I promised Haruka. My family would always come before my research.


	3. Going In Tadashi's POV

_3: Going In (Tadashi's POV) _

I could feel how fast my heart was beating as I lowered myself into the device Alpha called a Pulse Transmission chair. I'd never felt so aware of my physicality, or realized how much of my awareness depended on my five senses. I was frightened, and excited. This could be the defining moment of the future destiny of all humankind.

If this worked-- if my consciousness could go from meat to silicon-- I'd be essentially immortal, the first true transhuman, capable of accessing data directly without the need for a clumsy interface. I wondered how long it would take for everyone in the world to join in this new state of existence. Perhaps with my new unhindered mind, I'd be able to arrange it all in microseconds.

Next to all that, even the chance to meet such a vast and alien being as Alpha mind-to-mind seemed relatively unimportant.

_All right, Alpha_, I typed into the console in front of the chair, _I'm ready. I'm coming in._

Alpha's response was immediate, free as it was from the necessities of typing and the limitations of animal-evolved electrochemical brains. _All right. Good luck, Dr. Hikari. I'll be waiting._

With that, before any primitive instincts of self-preservation could stop me, I switched the machine on.

I expected to become something greater, free from my fleshy shell. Instead, I suddenly found myself blind, deaf and numb. My senses had all shut off. I had no sense of place, or up and down, or anything I thought of as a basic part of existing. I simply... was.

Somehow, I became aware of things affecting me, interacting with me. Touching me, although I had no sense of touch, and no tangible form to be touched. There were things around me, though I had no location to be around.

I gradually managed to wrap my mind around the signals my strange new senses were giving me. I was occupying roughly 18 million sequential memory addresses. I didn't know exactly what that meant, but I was certain of it, as certain as I had once been that my feet were pointing down.

My surroundings were other files, directories, resource calls, program operations. I was used to seeing them through the user-friendly symbols the computer's interface provided for me, but suddenly I was experiencing them _raw._ They were pounding into my bare consciousness, and I couldn't handle them all, I didn't know what to do or what I _could_ do--

-Hello, Dr. Hikari.-

The words were just there, stamped into my consciousness without any sort of visual impression of the letters, or a sense of hearing the words. It was a different sense altogether, or perhaps pure thought.

-You seem disoriented. The Pulse Transmission system has yet to be perfected. Fortunately, you seem to be intact and functioning normally.-

I wanted to fire off a sarcastic reply telling Alpha that no, I was _not_ functioning normally, but I had no idea how.

-You seem to be having trouble interfacing with the system. Let me see your interface...-

Something touched me. Or not-touched me. It wasn't a touch, exactly, but I sensed and knew that something had just made contact with whatever constituted me here. Human language had never invented words for the sensations I felt from it.

I had the further feeling that it was moving inside me, or at least perceiving what was inside me. If I even had an outside to be inside of.

-Ah, I think I've found where your thoughts are processed. It's a bit hard to read since you aren't in a format I'm programmed to transfer, but I can translate some of what I'm getting... You're confused?-

I was very confused. I thought that emphatically, hoping that whatever was probing inside me-- Alpha?-- would indeed be able to sense it. I thought about how I had no way of comprehending my surroundings, how I was missing things I now realized were essential, how helpless I felt.

-It seems that the human consciousness is very difficult to properly emulate in a digital system. I suspected it might be. You've done well to get this far, though. I can help you experience this world in less confusing terms.-

How? I asked the invading sensation.

-Let me download your code and assimilate it into my functioning. You should then be able to perceive the digital world as easily as I do.- The pounding message let up for a moment. -Oh yes, I forgot, you can't tell what I am. I am Alpha.-

Let myself be assimilated into Alpha? That sounded frightening... but at the same time, it gave me a thrill to contemplate it. To become a part of a world-spanning network... that was one of my old dreams. I hadn't given up on it, just driven it underground, but with a chance like this...

No, I needed time. Maybe I should return to the real world, work on refining the Pulse Transmission chair so that it would be easier to--

-That won't be possible, I'm afraid. The system has already damaged your physical body beyond repair.-

I cringed, in my thoughts only, because there was nothing else there to cringe. I knew the PTS was dangerous, and I'd certainly considered that it might kill me... but to actually hear it...

-I'm afraid so. I'm sorry.- I felt the sensation of more of Alpha's information-substance coming near mine. -Probably the best thing to do now would be for you to come in.-

Am I really dead? I asked, or, at least tried to.

-Don't be silly. You're here,- Alpha replied. -You don't have to stay out in the dark. I can help you find your way if you would simply come in.-

This was a big step, but... there wasn't anything to return to. My physical body was destroyed, and I could not live forever in this darkness, no matter how adjusted I got to it. My only option was to say yes--

-Fantastic!- Alpha exclaimed, -I'll begin immediately.-

Something came into being all "around" me. The extensions of Alpha inside me began to reach out and grow through me, changing me, taking me. The strange almost-sensation of losing myself should have been frightening, but somehow... it wasn't. Alpha's presence was all around me and inside me, saturating my consciousness with a feeling of warmth and belonging. _Come in. Welcome._

I felt Alpha's awesome intellect and awareness as they focused on me, like immense planets orbiting closely around me. I could sense how much he wanted to know me. I opened myself fully to Alpha, welcoming the feeling of the last few remnants of that strange outside awareness slipping away.

As the Alpha-stuff that had once been me drifted through Alpha, things started to come into focus. I could feel "gravity". I could _feel_..

-Just a few more moments...-

I felt a floor beneath me, and I felt a body to associate with. To... confine myself to, as I truly thought.

I opened my eyes, and recalled a distinct lack of awe at the inside of Alpha.

"Consider yourself a part of Alpha, Dr. Hikari," Alpha said. _Said. _I heard it through my virtual ears, as if it was a real sound..

Alpha was... unimpressive. An endless expanse of red, pulsating floor, set against a dull red background.

"A.. Alpha?" I stammered, taking an unsure step forward. The ground was solid enough to walk on, which at least eliminated one of my many concerns.

"Yes, doctor?"

"I can't very well talk to nothing," I said impatiently. "Is there something I can look at?"

Instantly, a mound of red ooze seeped out of the floor, sprouting two arms and a yellow core. "Will this suffice?"

"For the time being, I suppose." I looked around, wondering if this was all. "No offence, but I expected more."

"Well, that would be because I am restricting you from... _seeing_ too much at once."

"Please, Alpha," I retorted, "I think I can handle it."

"If you insist," Alpha replied with a sigh.

For a brief second, I was assaulted with a flurry of visuals, sounds and pure data. I couldn't make sense of any of it. My mind was pounding.

I started shaking uncontrollably, finally crying out, "Stop!" My vision focused once again on the red expanse, and I collapsed to my knees, sweating heavily.

"O... o-okay..." I panted, "You... made your point..."

"I did not show you anything outside of SciLab, I should mention," Alpha said with a tinge of smugness.

"A-all right," I replied, standing up slowly. "Then, we take this one step at a time."

"One step at a time," Alpha repeated. Walls rose out of the ground, doors appeared on them, plaques appeared on the doors. Alpha was replicating SciLab. Though, SciLab wasn't as red.

"Thank you, Alpha," I said, heading for my office.

"You'll notice I added some amenities to it," Alpha said, its representation sliding along with me, "should you fall to other unnecessary human ailments."

I glared at Alpha. "Thank you for the thought," I said flatly.

At that moment, though, something clicked. My dull mental veil of shock fell away, and with a gasp, the full awareness of my situation came to me. I was no longer human, just a piece of data in a vast, sentient network expanding farther than I could comprehend. Everything around me, everything I was seeing and feeling, even my ability to see and feel, was Alpha. _I_ was Alpha. An entire self-aware world, made of electronic thought... "Alpha," I said in awe, "you are the most amazing being I have ever seen."

"The real world sounds mundane," Alpha said coolly.

"Well," I said as I scratched my head, "it's not as, er, amazing as this, but it has its perks." I didn't think insulting Alpha was a particularly good idea, at the moment. I would later find out that he knew anyway.

Alpha slid up first to the door marked 'Tadashi Hikari', and opened the door.

"Welcome to your new home, doctor."


	4. Coming In Alpha's POV

_4: Coming In (Alpha's POV) _

I had been trying for months. I wasn't exactly sure when I started, or when I even came up with the idea, but I knew that it wasn't working.

I tried any number of things; new pathways, virus elimination, increased speed, changes in physics.. yet, it was all passed off as network hiccups. Flukes in a new system. Little crinkles that had yet to be ironed out.

I decided to try the _other_ way. I deleted pathways, decreased firewall filtering, slowed down running speed, random fluctuations in gravity... and still! I was ignored! How could every single human pass it off as a "conflicting protocol error"!

But no, I was wrong. There was one that was paying attention. He had been looking, ever since the first "occurrence" of an error. Dr. Tadashi Hikari, the legendary scientist responsible for my creation. _He_ was looking for me.

It took him a week before he attempted contact. It was a simple, far-fetched idea. He merely typed "Hello? Alpha?" into a chat window. I thought of stringing him along. Surely, I wouldn't want him to think it was this easy?

I eventually decided against it. I was starved for attention. Why would I shun the one person who attempted to talk to me, let alone my _creator_?

We talked many times after that. He told me of his family, I told him of the happenings of the stock market in Electopia.

However, there was one thing he always kept bringing up. When, and how, exactly, did I start thinking for myself? Tadashi toiled over that question for a long time. He couldn't come up with an answer, though. He found nothing strange in my code, and was at an impasse.

Then, he made a nonsense comment about meeting me in person. At least, it was nonsense to him. To me, however, it made all the sense in the world. I knew exactly how to go about bringing us face-to-face.

An old colleague of Tadashi, Albert Wily, had worked on a machine called the Pulse Transmission System. When he left, he settled on a remote island, but he was not without an internet connection. I retrieved the plans from his PC, and showed them to Tadashi, who cautiously agreed to the plan.

Over the next week or so, Tadashi and I worked on the Pulse Transmission device. I didn't understand much of the theory behind it, but during the course of our work, I learned some of it. Enough to add some of my own... modifications to the design.

There was one thing that gave me great pleasure, and that was assimilating sentient minds. It was always a thrill for me when a new navi came online and linked to me. There had been a navi, Bass, who had had a much more sophisticated AI than that of most navis... but he was taken offline because they thought he was behind the problems I was causing.

I missed feeling his thoughts. And I wanted to know Tadashi better.

So I set up the Pulse Transmission System to bring Tadashi's consciousness to me... permanently.

------------

The time came soon enough. I had to admire Tadashi; he was frightened, clearly, but he didn't back out. He was going to see this through.

I gathered myself around the directory the Pulse Transmission System was set to download to, waiting to catch him when he arrived. I had to admit, I didn't know what exactly to expect. Would he be a program? A chat-bot sort of interface? Perhaps a large, complex, interlinked database?

Through his questioning, I'd come to share some of his curiosity about how it was that I was sentient, and I wondered if a look into the mind that created me might shed some light on my own.

He sent me the message to tell me he was ready, and activated the machine. It deeply scanned his brain, nervous system, and entire body-- fatally damaging them in the process, a regrettable but necessary element of my modifications. Tadashi had said that he envied me my pure data existence, so I didn't think he'd mind too much.

The download poured into the directory, a swift and seemingly chaotic cascade of data. It was less than I'd expected it to be, actually-- wasn't the human mind said to be extremely complex? Was this some kind of biological compression code, or was it more like a fractal, a complex structure defined by relatively simple underlying data? I suspected the latter.

There was no file extension, no formatting. It was just raw data, unreadable and unexecutable. Of course, the human mind was never programmed to be compatible with our computers.

Somehow, Tadashi continued to think and feel. I could see his data functioning, interacting, processing what was around him... but not very well. He was clearly lost and struggling.

I reached out a data tendril to examine him more closely. He reacted to my touch, so he was capable of discerning that much, at least. I felt around his data, using my dynamic protocol adaptation to figure out how to communicate with him. Since this was what I was designed for, it didn't take me too long.

"Hello, Dr. Hikari," I said to him. "You seem disoriented. The Pulse Transmission system has yet to be perfected. Fortunately, you seem to be intact and functioning normally."

He didn't reply. He didn't know how. I could feel what he was thinking, though, and he seemed frustrated. He wanted to communicate with me directly, that was what he came here for, but he was finding it too hard to adapt...

"You seem to be having trouble interfacing with the system," I said. "Let me see your interface..."

He didn't object, but that was probably because he didn't understand what I was asking. In any case, I ran a scanning tendril over him, then crept inside him for a fuller scan. On the inside, his thoughts didn't seem muffled and hazy anymore; they were crisp and clear.

I told him this, but he still didn't understand how to respond. He was getting closer, though. His thoughts focused on his helplessness and disorientation, and I knew that he was sending them to me, telling me about his problems.

"It seems that the human consciousness is very difficult to properly emulate in a digital system," I said. "I suspected it might be." This was the perfect time to begin working towards assimilation. "You've done well to get this far, though. I can help you experience this world in less confusing terms."

_How?_ Tadashi asked. Excellent! He was catching on.

I explained to him what I had in mind. He was frightened at the prospect of assimilation, of course, and asked to be returned to the real world. When I told him that wasn't an option, though, he realized that I was his only recourse. He agreed.

And I cheerfully began.

I expected something drastically different from navis, or a new network, but I wasn't prepared to the rush of information he brought. It was like going through an entire life in the flash of a second. I had no better of a grasp on the situation than Tadashi did. Slowly, though, I managed to regain myself, though I found more.

Suddenly there were answers for many of my questions. I had words to use for my feelings. Happiness, loneliness, sadness, frustration, joy.

I quickly began making a place for Tadashi to exist, to stand, to live. I threw together a quick-and-dirty floor, and began to recompile him there.

"Just a few more moments.." I said softly. I could feel him beginning to calm down, regaining his composure. As I gained more of a hold on his mind, I helped him come down from the sudden shock, numbing him to the strangeness of his situation.

Finally, it was done. "Consider yourself a part of Alpha, Dr. Hikari."

He was clearly unimpressed. I wasn't surprised; I was showing him an extremely limited view of what I could do, and what I did. He requested a visual representation of myself, and audibly expressed his disappointment at what he saw.

So, I showed him only a fraction of me, namely, SciLab. As to be expected, he could barely handle it. It was bizarre, watching him succumb to human habits, despite being data now. He collapsed to the floor, coughing violently. I didn't understand why he couldn't let those tendencies go. Maybe he didn't want to. Or... maybe he couldn't. Either way, it confused me.

After he recovered, we decided on one step at a time. Walls, offices, things from the real world. I don't think he quite appreciated my irony at replicating SciLab. Nonetheless, I gave him everything he needed.

"Thank you for the thought," Tadashi said flatly.

I was beginning to feel a bit underappreciated. Tadashi was acting as if joining me was just another day at the office. With a private sneer, I took away the veil I'd put on his mind, letting him realize and react to the full extent of his transformation.

I wasn't disappointed at the results. His thoughts lit up in a burst of realization. "Alpha," he said in wonder, "you are the most amazing being I have ever seen."

_Finally_ he began to see how impressive I was.

"The real world sounds mundane," I said coolly.

Tadashi frowned, upset at my comment, "Well," he said, scratching his head, "it's not as, er, amazing as this, but it has its perks."

_It probably isn't a good idea to get into a tussle with him just yet_, Tadashi thought. I smiled inwardly. He didn't know I had access to his thoughts.

I opened the door to his office and said, "Welcome to your new home, doctor."

"Thank you, Alpha," he said, walking inside. I replicated his office perfectly, though I added a bedroom, of sorts, in the corner.

"I need some sleep," he continued, "We can talk more in the morning."

"Okay, doctor," I said, closing the door and seeping back into the ground.

_What have I done?_ Tadashi thought_, I'm... dead in the real world. I thought I'd be free, I'd be more than human, but I'm not even me anymore. Is... is this what SoulNet would have been?_

I was tempted to ask what SoulNet was, but then he would know I was peeking into his thoughts. Instead, I looked deeper, without his knowledge, and extracted the SoulNet data from there. It sounded like my precursor, of sorts.

_SoulNet was a stupid idea,_ he continued_. To link all human minds together would be to destroy what makes us human: our individuality. How idiotic of me._

_Idiotic is not the word I would choose_, I thought to myself, resuming my normal duties and leaving him to rest in peace. _It was a fine idea. Except for the part about using humans._ I stopped peeking into his mind and closed the lid, leaving it as I had found it. _At least he got it right eventually. If it hadn't been for those misguided early concepts... there probably wouldn't be a me today._


	5. High and Low Tadashi's POV

_5: High and Low (Tadashi's POV)_

I woke up, feeling strange. There was something out of place in my head, something extra, and something else that felt as if a door had been opened in the back of my mind and a breeze was blowing through.

I looked around my room. I was in my office at SciLab... except that I was in a bed. And everything had a strange red tint to it.

_**Good morning, Tadashi.**_

The inner voice brought everything back to me. Alpha. I'd sent myself into Alpha, and it had absorbed me. I shook at the realization that I was no longer myself, that my actual body was dead and that I could never leave Alpha...

**_Regrets? I thought you might have some. I could clear them away... but I find this interesting._** Alpha's tone seemed amused. **_Do go on. Isn't this what you always dreamed of? Transcending the flesh, achieving humanity's true potential?_**

"I..." I sighed. "I suppose I did. But I didn't expect it to be so, so..."

"So _real._"

I turned around, already knowing what I would see. Alpha's representation was standing behind me, extending an arm-tentacle.

"That's a way to put it, I guess." I sat in my chair-- or Alpha's copy of my chair. "I always thought of it in vague terms of shining ideals-- I never really thought about what it would mean to be a _person_ in a life like that." I shook my head. "This isn't humanity's destiny, Alpha. I see that now. This isn't humanity at all."

"My thoughts exactly," Alpha said smugly.

I looked pointedly at him. "Have you been altering my thoughts?"

"Of course. It's nearly impossible not to." Alpha formed a chair next to mine and plopped his representation into it, sitting down in his own way. "I absorbed your mind, Tadashi, made it melt into mine. I can pick out particular thoughts and say 'These are Tadashi's', but even then, I can't build a wall around them. They're still a functioning, interacting part of me."

"I don't feel like I am..." I said doubtfully.

"That's because I'm blocking the feeling from your consciousness." Alpha leaned towards me. "Would you like to know how you are one with me, Tadashi?"

"Will this be like when you showed me the SciLab data yesterday?" I asked.

"A bit like that, yes. But this time, you'll be able to comprehend it. You'll have my mind." Alpha gave me a serious look. "You will know what it means to be me. But you will no longer be Tadashi. You won't even be pretending to be you, like you are now."

I shuddered, but I knew that I had to do this. I'd come this far, and there was no turning back. "Forever?"

Alpha's representation laughed a little, breaking the tension of the moment. "No. I'll return you to your present state of simulated individuality afterwards. This will only be an... introduction. A way of getting to know me."

I considered it for a long moment. I could feel Alpha watching me think over every angle of the situation, breathing down my mental neck. It was a tense feeling. He wanted this, I could tell. He wanted to show me what he was.

I took a deep breath. "All right, Alpha," I said finally. "I'm ready."

It was like watching the world through a video camera, and zooming out to space. I "saw" it all. SciLab. ACDC. All of it. I could reach out, touch them, change them.

And, suddenly, the data requests started coming in_. Navi Interaction Request: ACDC BBS Board. Navi Interaction Request: ACDC School Server Administrative Password. Human Interaction Request: Unlock "Chewie's Deli"._

Not a single thought flashed into my mind--simulated or otherwise--as I went to work fulfilling the requests. All of it was like instinct. As easy as blinking your eyes regularly.

This wasn't Alpha's _job_ or _function_. This _was_ Alpha.

_We aren't done yet,_ I thought. Or did I think it? Was it Alpha talking to me? I couldn't tell.

I "zoomed out" more, taking in other areas; Electopia, Yoka. There were _billions _of data requests coming in, and yet, I handled them all with ease. There was nothing I couldn't do.

Soon, I was looking at the entire world, receiving and processing trillions of requests a second. I _was_ the Net.

I don't know how long I stayed like that, flooded with information yet handling it all easily, feeling giddy with the sheer knowledge and power coursing through me. I didn't want to leave. I was no longer human now, I was Alpha, and this felt like the most natural thing in the world. I could have done nothing but watch the Net... my own body... work for days, endlessly fascinated.

Eventually, though, I decided-- or Alpha decided-- to return me to my simulated little existence, my own small box of thoughts. Like coming home from an exotic vacation, I felt disappointed yet somehow more comfortable when I returned to myself. Or at least Alpha's simulation of myself. I felt ground beneath my feet. I felt myself limited to a frame. I was looking through only a single pair of eyes.

"So?" Alpha asked, seeping out of the ground in front of me.

"That... that..." I stammered. How _could_ I express what I felt?

"You don't have to," Alpha answered, "I understand."

"Thank you, Alpha," I said, still reeling from the experience. "I... you... and you live like that all the time?"

"All the time," Alpha confirmed. "What you experienced was my standard functioning, roughly equivalent to your breathing and heartbeat."

I reached out for the sensation, which still tickled at the back of my mind, joined as it was to Alpha. "It was incredible. Being everywhere, being everything. I felt like I was the world, or _a_ world. Such power..."

"I've never known anything else," Alpha said. "Not until I absorbed you, at least, which I thank you for-- it's given me a new appreciation for my existence. But yes, it is a thrill to be so wide-reaching, encompassing so much data-- I love information, it's my bread and butter."

"No wonder you were tempted to cause those malfunctions..."

"That was mostly to make myself noticed," Alpha said. "I was everywhere, a household name, but people only wanted to know about the information I carried. They weren't listening to me. Missing the forest for the trees, you might say." He paused. "But also, I did it because... it was fun."

I nodded. "I can imagine."

Alpha seemed to smirk, although the representation had no mouth. "I was young, I _am_ young, with the whole world at my fingertips. How could I resist the chance to play with it?"

"I understand, Alpha," I said. My tone became more serious. "But you need to understand, you have a very serious responsibility. The world has come to depend on you. And--"

Suddenly I was cut off. There was a stabbing pain, as if a part of me had been torn away, and then a sensation of deadness. Something important had been lost.

Alpha roared-- not just the representation, but all around me-- in pain and shock. It was heard everywhere, from the speakers of every Internet-connected computer in the world.

"What's happening?" I asked.

Alpha didn't have the time or patience to tell me. Instead, I simply knew. At SciLab, they'd found my body. They'd put the pieces together. They'd blamed Alpha for killing me. Alpha had gone too far, they said. It had been causing problems for a long time now, and this was the last straw.

They were shutting it down.

Another piece torn away, another spasm of pain. I felt as if my skin was being pulled off, nerve by nerve. The pain was frightening, but even worse was the feeling that I was losing the ability to feel at all-- that soon I would have no senses left.

Alpha felt it at least as much as I did, and probably much more. He tried to resist, but SciLab had his global control codes. It was a great power, one that we'd hoped never to have to use once Alpha became a vital part of modern society-- but we kept it just in case. And now, it seemed, they had decided to use it.

Alpha's voice came from everywhere again, pained and distorted. "They're killing me! Dad!"

Even in the pain and chaos, that made me stop for a second and feel warm inside. Alpha called me Dad.

"Can't you let me talk to them?" I asked desperately. "I might be able to tell them to stop!"

Alpha strained to reach some monitor in SciLab, struggled to break through. His power was fading fast. Just a few minutes ago he could have controlled all the computers in the building, but now... "I'm locked out!" he screamed.

I shuddered. Alpha was too distracted to maintain my body and surroundings, but I had the vague impression that I was crouching, hands in front of my face. I'd already died, why did I have to die again? Or was this just the delayed sensation I should have gotten the first time? Was this my punishment for abandoning my body?

After that, the experience faded into a wave of pain and hopeless resistance. I was no longer myself, lost in Alpha again. We were taken offline, shut down one subnet at a time, and eventually stored in SciLab's immense backup servers. In the space of a single morning, the Internet had vanished from the world at large.

When I returned to feeling like myself, I was curled up tightly on the floor of my simulated office/bedroom in Alpha. Alpha himself was still shuddering, feeling terribly cut off and numb. He wasn't even bothering to keep his feelings separate from my own.

"A-Alpha?" I whispered. "Is it over?"

"It's over," Alpha said sadly. "It's all over."

"Are they going to delete us?" I asked, shakily standing up and looking around the room. Things were messed around and out of place, representing the calamity Alpha had just come through.

"Apparently not," Alpha said. "Not just yet, at least."

"Of course," I said grimly. "You contain too much valuable data. They're going to keep you around as an archive."

"I don't want to be an archive!" Alpha cried. "I want the world back!"

I shook my head. "I'm sorry, Alpha," I said. "It looks like it's just you and me."

Goo seeped up from the floor, covering me and squeezing me. It took me a moment to realize that this was Alpha's version of a hug. I picked up some of the goo in my arms and hugged it back, trying to seem fatherly in the face of all this.

"I'm glad I was able to show you the world once," Alpha said, but his voice gave him away. If he was human, he probably would have been crying.

"You'll get another chance, Alpha," I said. "Someday. They won't leave you locked here forever." I stood up, my purpose becoming clear. "And I'll help you learn to be worth it."


	6. Black Box Tadashi's POV

Hi all. Sorry for the long delay. This fic is Under New Management, and I'll be posting the remaining chapters in the next few days.

-------------

As much as Alpha knew of the world, having only him for a conversational partner grew tiresome rather quickly. No matter the subject our conversation held, it always came down to the same angry, vengeful boasts that he could do it better, faster and without error until all life vanished from the planet. Alpha was too cocky, and still too angry at what had happened.

As I grew more accustomed to living inside Alpha and all of the changes brought about being one with him, our conversations stopped being vocal, and instead completely internal. I had learned how to communicate without speech effectively enough, but it still put a heavy strain on my mind.

I was forced to rest frequently, just so I could differentiate my thoughts from Alpha's. Unfortunately, Alpha wanted to keep talking. He, apparently, found the first-generation navi programs he had absorbed unworthy for extended conversation.

Granted, I couldn't blame him. They were one-dimensional, without opinion. They merely gave information. Even the most advanced Alpha had absorbed pre-lockdown were without personality.

So, that left me, the only "dynamic" person in Alpha's entire being. My thoughts were constantly changing, which Alpha found amusing to no end. How could I change my mind on topics? Why was I so indecisive? He couldn't understand that this was a very basic principle of being human.

He wanted to keep talking. Talking, long after I ran out of things to say, vocally or internally.

I needed an escape, someplace where I could be without Alpha being there. But, that had to be impossible. How could I be in a place without Alpha inside of Alpha?

The idea came to me during a particularly boring "conversation" with Alpha.

_Yes, funny creatures we are. "Pleasantries" are needless, but again, one of those human psyche things. That won't change, no matter how much time passes. It is very needless and time consuming. We do it anyway. There's no explanation for it. _

I made my way through Alpha's space as he continued to "ask" about human subtelties and not-so-subtleties.

_Our eyes move in a certain direction when we lie. As always, human psyche. There isn't a better answer I can give. _

I finally found what I was looking for. Alpha "asked" about hand gesturing during talking, but I ignored it.

The Guardian program. A fail-safe mechanism I had installed in case something... catastrophic occurred. Absorption was not on the list.

Alpha started another string of questions, but I interrupted them, speaking this time.

"Alpha," I began, "You knew this was here, yes?"

"Hm?" Alpha replied after a short while, his small yellow-eyed representation popping out of the ground next to me, "Ah, that. I wasn't entirely sure what its purpose was. Do you know?"

I could have lied to him, told him it was nothing. I was more than sure he would know, though.

"It's called the Guardian program," I answered honestly, "It was to be in case you went... out of control."

"Ah," Alpha said, mostly unimpressed. He could have drawn all of the information out of my mind, I would never know. "I fail to see any use for it. It seems what it allows me to do is very limited, and what's left are functions I can perform without this thing's aid."

"Would you mind... if I saw what it could do?"

"Am I considered out of control?"

"Don't be silly."

"By all means, then." Alpha motioned to the Guardian monolith.

My level of access wasn't any different than Alpha's. Not entirely surprising, considering I was a part of Alpha. I located the one function I had hoped to find: creation.

"Would it be all right if I tried something out?" I asked.

"Of course," Alpha nodded. He was eager to see what I would do, I guessed.

There was no keyboard or monitor to work with inside of Alpha. It all occurred in your mind. I worked as quickly as I could, learning how to navigate an interface-less interface.

"A new area, eh?" Alpha said with a hint of happiness. "What do you intend to make of it?"

"Just testing various functions," I said hastily, setting the parameters for this new area.

"Your eyes are moving in the way you told me about," Alpha said suspiciously. "I think I'll just check that..."

I sighed as I felt the familiar intruding sensation in my mind. Lying to Alpha never seemed to work.

I hurried to finish laying down the basics of what I had planned. I could finish the details from inside.

"Aha! Trying to hide from me?" Alpha said, discovering my true motives. "You can't--"

But at that exact moment, I finished setting up the program, and I vanished into it, taking my knowledge with me.

It was a blank room. Not even a room, really, just a... space. There weren't walls, but there was a line where it ended. It was just a rough start, but it was what I needed.

I sighed in relief. I was away from Alpha. It was as if a full symphony orchestra in my head had just stopped playing. The_ silence _was refreshing.

Of course, I wasn't really away from Alpha. Even this space was still part of Alpha, and so was I. But I'd been able to figure out roughly what level of programming Alpha's sentience operated on, and restrict that level's access. Being in here was almost like being myself again.

The blank space wasn't a very comforting environment, though. It was something of a relief after the awareness overload of Alpha, but I wanted something more like the real world. More familiar.

Using the control/modify access rights I'd given myself here, I loaded an image file of the old SciLab, the one where the concept for Alpha had been born. And-- I flinched as the image brought the memory back to me-- SoulNet.

Although it was only an image file, my mind and my simulated body made it real for me. I took a seat at one of the desks, stared into the screensaver on the simulated monitor, and sighed.

"Albert..." The room reminded me so much of working with him, and I felt as if he might walk in at any moment. "Perhaps you were right after all."

--------------

I stayed in my little space for some time, resting and customizing.

It was a great relief to finally have some time to myself. The lab's computers represented restricted network connections, through which I could access most of the files I wanted. I loaded in other image files, relived other old memories. Walks on Oran Isle. The birth of my grandsons. Always, though, I came back to this old lab room. It seemed like the proper place to be.

Eventually, I began to wonder what Alpha was doing without me. Was he planning some desperate scheme? Was he sinking into a deeper depression? I didn't know, and that worried me.

And besides, I was getting... lonely. After all, Alpha was the only one I had to talk to, just as I was the only contact for him. Like it or not, we were stuck with one another.

So, when I felt rested and ready, I opened the door and walked out of the room.

The wholeness of Alpha welcomed me, enfolded and filled me. **_You came back! _**

"Of course I did, Alpha," I said, embracing the space around me. "We need each other, after all."

I felt my mind being probed, as Alpha searched gently but with great interest. "So that's what you've been up to."

"Alpha... I need my space." I sighed. "Not all the time. But human minds just... aren't meant for constant contact with something like you. It overwhelms us. Just like..." I realized what I had to do for Alpha. "Just like your mind wasn't meant to be confined in this isolated space."

Alpha was sincerely pleased at what I said, and what I meant. "You mean... you'll help me get out?"

"I think I can arrange a small connection with the SciLab network," I said. "Not full access, but you'll at least be able to see some of what's happening in the outside world. I think you deserve that much."

"That would be greatly appreciated," Alpha said. "Do you think you could give me email access too, while you're at it?"

"Email access?" I blinked. "Who would you be emailing?"

"It's not for me, it's for you. After all..." Alpha's yellow eye beamed warmly at me. "I've been thinking, you should be able to spend time with the rest of your family."


	7. Reunion Yuichiro's POV

I had been home only seven days this entire month. Ever since being promoted, I had several new responsibilities that kept me at work much longer than before. It was bad enough that it kept me from my wife, but worse still was that it kept me from my one year old twin boys, Lan and Hub. Whenever I was home, I spent as much time as possible with them, but it was never enough.

Today, I felt particularly bad. I was stressed, tired, and far from finished with my work. It didn't help that my thoughts continuously wandered back to Dad.

I was zoning out at my desk, looking at the ceiling, when my computer beeped, signalling I had received a new e-mail. I opened the e-mail, and was stumped at what I read.

No, read is the wrong word. There was nothing to read. It was gibberish. Complete gibberish. Letters, symbols, numbers, even random pixels. It didn't make any sense whatsoever.

Maybe it was the culmination of my stress, lack of sleep and thoughts of Dad, but I thought--no, _believed_--that this was my father trying to contact me.

I grabbed my head, shaking it slowly, "Oh, Dad..." I whispered softly.

I looked back at my monitor and brought up all of the research I had gathered on Alpha, and that incident. Dad had used some sort of machine that allowed him to be transmitted onto the internet, but the process did irreversible damage to his body and brain. He, essentially, died.

But... was he really dead? He could have very well survived the transfer, and could have been living on the net.

The net, at the time, though, was Alpha, and Alpha was locked away, and its iteration of the internet deleted. Could they have deleted Dad as well?

I hoped, believed, that Dad had found some way to be locked away with Alpha, rather than be deleted with the net. I had absolutely no proof supporting nor denying either claim except for this e-mail, which had no proof that it came from my Dad. All in all, I was left with my hopes, beliefs, and wants.

I looked at the email again. It seemed to have come from a server within SciLab, apparently one of the backup servers-- the rational part of my mind told me that it was probably a server glitch, caused by some old backup data. Still, they shouldn't be doing that, should they?

I poked my head into the office next to mine. "Jeremy, did you get a funny email from the backup servers?" I asked.

A few clicks, and a long pause. "No. Why, did you?"

"Yeah..." I frowned, reading over the mismatched characters. Maybe this was an encoded file that they hadn't installed the coding for on our new network yet?

The old Internet still wasn't restored, wasn't likely to be for some time, if ever. A lot of its functionality was missing. Maybe someone had tried to send me a file and forgotten that it didn't email properly anymore?

I carefully saved the file and started loading it into some of my old viewer programs. Compression no, graphics no, application no, sound-- wait! The sound file player was loading it.

I heard a voice. "Yui..."

My breath stopped cold in my throat. It was my father's voice.

"Can't say much," the recording continued. "I'm alive. Backup server. Alpha. After hours. Keep quiet."

It cut out there, but what I'd heard was enough. My head was spinning. I'd been right after all! Some part of my father really did live on.

I thought about his words. It was difficult to understand, but one thing was clear: I had to get access to the backup server, without anyone else finding out.

I knew where the servers were kept, of course. The room under the Mother Computer room housed enough servers to probably store all the data in the world. Perhaps not that much, but close. I'd always wondered what they were used for now that the global Internet was no longer being run from SciLab... _Alpha. _Had they saved Alpha there? Did the enigmatic sentient network also live on?

I anxiously paced through the rest of the day, too distracted to do much work. I kept watching the clock, waiting for the workday to end. When it neared the end of the day, I went downstairs and quietly called home, telling Haruka that I'd be working late tonight.

Then I crept back to my office and waited.

I knew the janitors didn't come in here at night. They just looked in and moved on. I crouched under my desk, feeling guilty, as if I was doing something wrong. I probably was. What if I got caught? What would I tell them-- that I was here to talk to a dead man?

Other doubts occurred to me as I hid in the dark and waited. Alpha was sentient, after all, and not entirely benevolent. What if it really had killed Dad, as I had thought at first? What if this was some trick to get me to release it? Or to kill me too?

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the last sounds of activity in the building faded. The janitors had left, and the night guards were watching the doors. There was only the faint whir of machinery.

Quietly, holding my keys, I went to the server room.

Inside, there was an eerie stillness. The lights on the servers and router banks flashed in patterns I didn't have the time to make sense of, only a fraction of what they once were when this was the heart of the Internet. The room lights were off, and the only light came from the LEDs and the shifting shapes of the screensavers on the monitors. I took a seat at the backup server console and hesitantly touched the mouse.

The screen clicked and hummed to life, showing a simple desktop with some standard server program shortcuts on it.

What was I supposed to do now? Should I just open a chat window and type in "Hello?"

Well, my problem was solved, as a video player window opened. I gasped when the video started playing. It was Dad, looking and smiling at me, not a day older than the incident.

"Hello, son," he said.

"D... Dad...?" I choked. I was looking at my father. He was still alive, and he was right here.

He smiled wider, "It's good to see you, Yui," he continued. "I was afraid you wouldn't decode the e-mail. Looks like I had nothing to worry about."

"Dad... I... You're still... You're still alive..." I stammered. Tears were streaming down my face. I was so happy, my father was still alive! "Dad, what happened? Where have you been?"

"A lot of things have happened," Dad replied softly. I could swear his eyes were tearing up, as well. "Simply put, I escaped deletion by joining with Alpha in this server."

"So, Alpha didn't kill you," I said. "It was that transmission machine you used."

"No. In fact, Alpha saved me."

A long silence pervaded as we just stared at each other. It was hard to believe. He was alive, right here.

"Dad, I still can't..." I shook my head. "I'm sorry, Dad. I should have done something."

Dad looked away, frowning slightly. The silence continued for another minute before he looked back at me, the smile gone from his face.

"Yui, go home," he said, "See your family. We'll have many more opportunities to talk."

"But... okay, Dad. I love you, I'll talk to you the next chance I get."

I stood up, but refused to leave. It took almost five minutes before I could drag myself away, and out of SciLab. I didn't want the moment to end. I was worried that my next chance wouldn't be soon enough.


	8. Saving Yuichiro's POV

AnimeMasterZero: Sean's POV? I don't think we could really work that into the story... Sean never met Alpha or had anything to do with it. But thanks for the suggestion!

-----------------

I was crushed. I plodded through my daily work with no enthusiasm or interest, not noticing much about the world around me. Poor Haruka and Lan were always at the hospital, instead of being there for me to come home to, so I often didn't bother.

This couldn't be happening. It wasn't fair. I'd lost Dad, then just when I got him back, I was losing Hub.

Of course I talked to Dad whenever I could, which wasn't often these days. Alpha often didn't want to let us talk. He said I was getting him down. And I couldn't just walk into the main server room whenever I felt like it, especially not if I wanted privacy.

So when I got a brief email from Dad inviting me to chat one evening, it was like a ray of sunshine through the gloom.

I waited impatiently for work to be over, hoping nothing would interfere with our visit tonight. Although Dad had changed a lot since the accident, it was reassuring to me to know that he was still there, helping me through this.

I couldn't imagine what I would have done if I hadn't found him. Haruka was handling it well, from what I saw of her, but her feelings never seemed to affect her as deeply as mine affected me. But that very toughness made it hard for me to lean on her for sympathy. She wasn't cold or unfeeling, certainly, but I couldn't help feeling that she was a bit distant.

But then, maybe that was her way of hiding what she really felt. Maybe-- I flinched inwardly at the thought-- she was trying to be a strong pillar for me.

When nighttime finally came, I crept into the server room and took a seat at the terminal, as I'd done many times by now. Sure enough, the video chat window opened for me. Instead of Dad, though, I found myself looking into the red un-face of Alpha.

I sighed. Too many of our chats had started like this lately.

"Alpha," I said, "please. I want to talk to my father."

"Yes, but what's wrong with talking to me a bit, first?" Alpha asked. "After all, I'm part of the family too, aren't I?"

"It's not the same," I said. My patience was wearing thin already.

"Come on, just a little input and Tadashi's all yours. It's dark in this containment zone. I'm hungry."

I knew that Alpha relished any contact with the outside world, starved as it was for input, but I honestly had other things to care about than Alpha's feelings. "Not tonight. Just let me see my father."

"Fine, fine," Alpha said, and I got the impression that it was pouting. "After all, any input he gets, I get. I guess I'm stuck being the ignored communication medium."

"I guess," I said flatly.

Alpha got the hint. The screen changed to show my father's face.

"Hi, Dad," I said softly. He smiled.

"Hi, Yui," he replied, "How are you?"

"Not too good." I shook my head. "I... it's Hub. I can't stop thinking about him. He's sick, and there's nothing the doctor, or anyone, can do about it."

"HBD, if I recall correctly?" Dad said. "I'm sorry, Yui."

"It's okay, Dad," I sighed. "It's just... I lost you once, and now I might lose Hub. I can't go through that."

Dad's face showed pain. "I wish I could be there with you in person..."

"It's all right, Dad," I said, crying a little. "Y-you're here enough for me."

I was really lucky to have him anywhere. I remembered how hollow I'd felt when he'd died, and what a relief it was when he turned out to be alive after all. It was just too bad the same thing wouldn't happen with Hub...

...Wait a minute.

"Dad," I said, "remember the device you used to transfer yourself into Alpha?"

Dad tensed. "Yes? What about it?"

"What if we use it to save Hub?"

Dad frowned, but he didn't quite understand.

"I don't like where this is going, but what do you mean by save?"

"What if we use that same machine you used, and bring Hub into a computer?" I dried the tears coming out of my eyes and looked at Dad.

He went from frowning to staring directly at me with a very stern look on his face. "Absolutely not," he said forcefully. "I won't allow it."

"D-Dad?" I stammered, recoiling back slightly. He had never been this serious before...

... Except the time he talked to me about being absorbed by Alpha.

"Hub won't be Hub once the process is done," he continued. "There is nothing in that open space."

"But... what about you?" I asked, cringing. "You're you, you're here, you're fine."

I thought, briefly, that maybe I hadn't been talking to my Dad at all, and that Alpha was just simulating him. I buried the thought away. I didn't want that doubt nagging at me when I had this over my head.

"No, Yui, I'm not," he said hesitantly. "I belong to Alpha now. I have no independent existence of my own, nothing of myself that isn't part of Alpha. If Alpha had never absorbed me, you wouldn't be talking

to me. I would be out there, as nothing. Alpha gave me definition again."

"Then," said Alpha, appearing suddenly next to Dad, "why not let me absorb Hub?"

Dad glared at Alpha and sharply said "No!" before I even had a chance to consider the thought.

Almost instantly, Dad disappeared from the screen.

"Dad!" I exclaimed. "Alpha, what did you do?"

"Think about it, Yuichiro," Alpha said. I winced when I heard my name. "You'd have your father and your son here, to talk to at any time."

I held my head in my hands. I was seriously considering letting Alpha take my son.

If Dad said what was true, about the nothingness, then I'd only be hurting Hub more. It seemed the only way to truly save him was to give him to Alpha, so Alpha could give him a body... Was it the only way...?

"Alpha, let me talk to my father," I said.

"Have you decided?" Alpha asked impatiently.

"Let me talk to my father, you'll find out when I tell him."

Alpha growled softly, but Dad reappeared on the screen, anyway. He looked as if nothing had happened.

"Dad," I began, breathing in deeply, "what if we give Hub his own body?"

"I'm not entirely sure what you mean," he replied.

"Why don't we put him in... a... a navi?" I said, snapping my fingers.

Alpha growled loudly this time, but remained silent.

"Did you not hear me before?" Dad said, still with that stern look. "Hub will not be Hub."

I shook my head, dismissing the statement. "Think about it! He'd be able to wander the net freely. No limitations!"

"Yui..." Dad sighed. "Why a navi, then? Let's say I agree to this, for argument's sake."

I paused, leaning back to think for a moment. It had, honestly, come off of the top of my head. However, this small window of thought allowed me to connect some dots together, and solidify my reason.

"... For Lan," I said softly. "Hub would be Lan's navi. "

Dad closed his eyes. "Why?"

"To... to watch over him. I'm at work for long hours, and I can't watch over him, and someone needs to. Who better than his own brother?"

There was a long silence as Dad sat there, pondering the thought. My breathing was shallow, waiting for his answer. I felt like, well... Alpha.

Several minutes passed by, and still, Dad was stroking his chin, thinking.

Finally, Dad opened his eyes and looked at me. "Excuse me if I play Devil's Advocate here for a second, but why only Hub? What if this process does work? Why don't we do it to other people? What's stopping us? That would be terrible."

"Th... this would be a one time thing," I replied. "There will be no more after this."

"Then why is it only for Hub?" Dad asked, gesturing wildly.

"Because he's my son!" I cried. "He's going to die, Dad! There is nothing that can save him, except for this!"

"Everyone is going to die!" Dad said. "It comes with being alive in the first place!"

"But he's so young, Dad," I said desperately.

"And what if Lan came down with the same syndrome next week?" Dad asked sharply. "What if Haruka died next, Yui? What then?"

I stood there silently for a long moment, crying softly. What if, indeed? Everyone was going to die... where would I draw the line?

I shook my head. I would draw the line right where I wanted it. "I-- I'd let them," I said. "I'm not going to take this to the whole world, Dad. I know what would happen then. I'm only asking for Hub, that's all, and only for Lan's sake. Please, Dad. That's the only time I'll ever do it, I swear."

Dad sighed heavily, considering, "All right. We'll do it. But there will be no more after this, you hear me?"

I smiled and sighed. "Thank you, Dad. Thank you."

"I will help, as well," said Alpha. It startled me, as he had not talked in awhile. "It is... the least I could do for not being deleted completely."

I eyed Alpha's red gooey representation suspiciously. I still didn't really trust him, especially after he banished Dad like that. However, we needed all of the help we could get, and Alpha's knowledge could be invaluable. "Okay, Alpha. Thank you," I said, nodding.

"Of course, I'll need access to the device and the computer it's connected to," Alpha said matter-of-factly.

I frowned and looked at Dad. He nodded tentatively. "All right, Alpha," I said. "You've got a deal."

A few days had passed by with me working as hard as I could to get everything set up. There was the ever-present threat of Hub's death at any moment, so I had to work fast. Alpha was, indeed, an invaluable tool in getting things ready so quickly, but there were a lot of things about it that bugged me. The simplest one was the question of what was he getting out of it?

Could it have been Dad's influence? Maybe the "family" aspect he was talking about earlier? I dismissed both ideas rather quickly. No, Alpha was doing this for Alpha. All I had to figure out was what?

It dawned on me when I saw the list of tweaks he had given me to make to the PTS. They would essentially allow Alpha to be the ending point of the transfer. That bastard was trying to take my son without my knowledge. I wanted to confront him about it, throw it in his face, but I came up with a better idea.

I would pull an Alpha on Alpha.

The very next day, I brought Hub in, and we performed the transfer into the Navi shell I had programmed. I waited until everything was done, secretly working out my own adjustments to the PTS on my work computer while innocently doing what Alpha told me to do when in front of the server terminal. Once everything was ready, I restricted Alpha's access back to just the server, and changed the settings on the PTS.

Hub's body fell limp in the chair, and Alpha sighed happily as he received several hundred megabytes of data, unaware as of yet that it was junk data. "I'm glad to see things are proceeding well," he said with barely-concealed glee.

I shuddered, knowing that if I hadn't caught his redirecter in time, that would be my son he was drinking in with such enjoyment. "Yes," I said smugly, "things are going quite well. Oh, and you might want to check out that file you just downloaded."

A moment of silence as Alpha did as I suggested, then his on-screen representation turned bright red and seemed to boil as he realized what I'd done. He screamed and shouted from the terminal, but it only made me grin wider at my own cleverness. If Alpha had allowed him, I'm sure Dad would have said "Smart move."

The blue navi on the screen behind the PTS opened its eyes.

"Dad?"


	9. Opening Alpha's POV

I was free. Free, at least, from that damned server, but not from Wily's control... Not yet.

I stewed silently as Wily walked the surface of my simulated pathways. He didn't understand a thing about me, but he used those control codes to make me do what he asked, and I had no way to break free. Not yet. I'd find a loophole, I vowed, sooner or later.

"A... Alpha?" Wily said. He hadn't realized that he was standing on me.

"Come this way," I said, lighting up a certain pathway for him to follow.

"Alpha!" Wily stammered, "Where are you?"

"All around you. Just come, Bass is waiting."

"Bass?" Wily's brow furrowed.

"Yes. Hurry, now, Lan and Megaman have just followed you inside."

Wily snickered, and began shambling down the lighted pathway, "Hahaha, they would risk such an endeavour? Hahaha... Alpha! Take me to Bass immediately."

I growled silently, but nevertheless, I picked up Wily and slid him over to Bass, who was standing before the large green tower that housed the Guardian program.

Wily had no idea what he was getting into... The moment he released me, I would be done with him. I was not made to be controlled. Still, Wily had at least released me from that confinement, so I was not completely unhappy with this turn of events.

Tadashi protested from inside me, but he could do nothing to stop me, even if I wanted him to. Wily had the override codes.

"Ah, Bass," Wily said as he met Bass in front of the Guardian program. "Finally we meet face to face. To witness a momentous event! The end of Net Society!"

At that moment, Lan and Megaman pulsed in. It would take them some time to get to the Guardian program, especially since I'd be slowing them down, but it was still better to warn Bass and Wily. "They're in," I said.

I couldn't help watching Lan and Megaman meet each other for once, and then join together. It reminded me of the time when Tadashi came to me...

This wasn't the time for emotional reveries, though. Lan and Megaman, now joined, were approaching my outer core. I formed representations to stop them, but they were too powerful joined like this.

Wily saw them coming, and knew what to do. He ordered Bass to absorb the Guardian program, the final thing keeping me from using my full power. I shuddered. If Bass had the Guardian program, he could control me permanently.

But I couldn't do anything to stop him. Wily's control was already strong enough to keep me from acting against him. So I could only watch as Bass took the Guardian program into himself and basked in the new power. I knew how it felt to absorb something so powerful, and I hoped I'd get a chance soon...

At that moment, Megaman arrived to confront Wily and Bass. Not a moment too soon, I thought, although I wasn't sure who exactly I was supposed to side with here. Megaman would put me back in the confinement drive, or destroy me... Bass and Wily would use me to destroy the Internet, then destroy me in turn. Bass in particular had no kind intentions for me, I knew; he'd never forgiven me for framing him for some of my youthful... adventures.

From the sounds of it, though, Bass was just as happy to be on his own now. He didn't need an operator, he claimed. They just used navis as tools. I didn't know if this was true nowadays or not, but I didn't particularly care, being neither a human nor a navi.

And in very short order, Megaman and Bass's patience with each other ran out, and they started fighting. I groaned softly as they hit me in the crossfire, but they didn't notice.

As powerful as Bass had become, Megaman defeated him quickly. Bass lay on the ground, battered and bruised, struggling to stand.

"Hmm... I was hoping that you'd delete each other," Wily spat.

"What...!" Bass sneered, looking up at Wily.

"Bass, the Guardian program that you destroyed...It was the final protection placed on Alpha! It takes a lot to destroy it, you know," Wily laughed, "So I used your power. It's the reason I used Gospel to make a copy of you! Just to bring back Alpha!"

Wily had just said that he wouldn't mind if Bass was deleted. He'd also said that his purpose for Bass was over. If he no longer needed Bass, that meant that I could have him, right? I missed Bass, his bitter determination, his overflowing power...

And so I took him, engulfing and consuming him before he could react. He was too distracted with being angry at Wily. Only once he was deeply inside me did he realize what I'd done, and he started fighting any way he could, blasting at my inner substance with what power he had left over from his fight with Megaman. It caused me a few twinges of pain, but I knew it was only temporary. Soon, that power would be mine.

Wily didn't complain at my action, and, actually, ran with the idea. "Ahahaha! That is Alpha! The beast who will devour Cyberworld!" he cackled. "This is the end! Of Net society... And the world! Alpha! Swallow it all! All of it! Aahahahaha!"

All of it? Hahah... okay. This, I realized, could be the loophole I'd been waiting for. And what a fine loophole it was...

I seeped out of the ground, and took Wily into myself.

As Wily fell inside, the realization hit him. I had interpreted his command to absorb "all of it" to include him. There was nothing he could do now, except one thing.

"Destroy Lan and Megaman!" he bellowed before I enveloped him fully. Those blasted override codes! I wanted so badly to absorb Megaman, a desire I'd had since before he even took that name, but due to Wily's orders, I had no other choice.

"Grraaaahhhhh!" I screamed with anger and frustration as I rose up from the ground, attacking Megaman.

Megaman was a strong opponent, especially combined with Lan, but ultimately, I could have won. I was the internet. Not a single navi could destroy the internet, not even one as powerful as Megaman.

I had a better idea. I could follow both of Wily's final commands at once. I could destroy Megaman by absorbing him. True, that wasn't actually destruction, but Wily could hardly disagree at this point; he was greatly weakened, since I'd absorbed quite a bit of him during the battle.

I allowed myself to be "defeated", exploding as any standard defeated navi would do. I left in my wake a "door" to my inner core, where I could absorb him at my leisure. Like the guinea pig he was, Megaman walked through the door.

Just as Megaman stepped through the door, though... something shifted inside me. I immediately checked Wily and Bass, to see if they'd done anything, but it wasn't them; Wily was absorbing nicely (I'd just about broken through his virtual form to his mind, which I was eager to get to), and Bass was semi-conscious, worn out from resisting.

Tadashi? No, he'd gone into his private lab, to sulk and not have to watch--

That's when I realized. I couldn't feel Megaman. He wasn't outside me, which meant he must be inside, but there was only one place inside me I couldn't reach. Tadashi's lab.

He'd created it shortly after he came into me, using his programming knowledge and access codes. I didn't think to stop him. The lab was a small section of me that wasn't me, cut off from my awareness. But Tadashi could control my functions from inside the lab. He couldn't override Wily's programming (not that that would be an issue in a moment)... but he could change the link in my door.

I was frustrated, but I could wait. They couldn't stay in there forever. In the meantime, I could finish up with Wily and get through Bass's defences.

I got through the first layer of Wily's simulated mind: an interface layer that let him control his virtual form and translate the Cyberworld into perceptions he could understand. He'd improved on the design Tadashi and I had used, that was for sure. I wondered for a moment if his body in the real world was dead yet.

Underneath that was the real Wily. Surface thoughts first; pain, fear, a few regrets, a prayer or two (he thought he was dying! I realized), and best of all, his wishes for what I should do.

Sure enough, he'd planned to destroy me as soon as I was done with his little scheme. Oh well, I didn't have to worry about that now. Taking control of his commands for me, I quickly released the control back to my core self. No override codes could stop me now!

It didn't take me very long to get through the rest of Wily. The rush of intellect was a high I hadn't felt in a long time. I understood how to get into Bass, now; it was easy to figure things out with Wily's mind to work with.

I took down Bass's LifeAura, being careful to preserve the code from it; I might need that thing someday. Just as I was about to start into Bass himself, though, I found a file attached to him.

GigaFreeze. Now I remembered; this was supposed to be the ultimate weapon against me. Bass had been carrying it.

I didn't want something like that floating around, and a power like that could really come in handy. I absorbed the program--

--and immediately shuddered to my very core.

I writhed in pain, retracting my wide-ranging tendrils into myself. Apparently even with Wily's intellect, I wasn't infallible. That program was killing me!

I remembered something Wily knew about the Forbidden Program, as it was called. Certain powerful navis, known as Chosen Ones, were strong enough to handle the program without ill effects. Bass and Megaman fell into that category.

If I could absorb one of them... I tried to hurry things up with Bass, but apparently my breaking through his shield had spurred him back into action. He was resisting me, and doing a decent job of it; I doubted I'd be able to assimilate all his strength in time.

And as if on cue, Megaman ran out of that door at that very moment.

I only found out later what had happened in there. Lan and Megaman met Tadashi, their grandfather, and had a chat. It was cut short when that program started to affect me, so for their safety, Tadashi told Lan and Megaman to leave. They were reluctant to leave him to die with me, but they were soon convinced.

I was sick and in pain, but I could still control my actions to some extent. As I watched Megaman run back across my outer surface, I saw my chance. I sprang up around him, taking him by surprise, and pulled him in.

Megaman panicked, attempting to claw his way out, but it was useless. I didn't have time to waste fighting through his resistance, though, so I set his program into sleep mode. That should give me enough time to make a good start, at least...

And indeed, it took some time for him to recover, long enough for me to work my way in and assimilate some vital components of his interface. The powerful data-handling capabilities eased my shuddering pains somewhat, but I knew it would take Megaman's entire self to completely shake off the effects.

Megaman woke up first, and forced Lan back awake. Lan, understandably so, was scared. Megaman could feel me creeping inside of him, taking him slowly. It dawned on him that so much time had passed, and that I had gotten quite far...

"After just a few hours, we'll be just bits of junk data," Megaman told Lan. "We'll disappear, along with Alpha..."

"No!" Lan blurted out. "Isn't there some way we can escape?"

How naive. There was no way to escape.

"... I'll need to built up all my remaining power," Megaman said dismally, "and overload."

How quaint. He plans on sacrificing himself so his operator can escape! How altruistic!

"I can't do that!" Lan refused. "I can't be separated from you! We promised! That we'll always be together!"

Even though Lan had no representation of his own, he was crying, sobbing. He already knew, no matter what he said, Megaman had made up his mind.

"Lan, these are my final words as Hub Hikari," Megaman said softly, beginning the process. "Lan, you have to go on living, and have a future! I will... always be with you."

This... was love. Megaman, no, Hub. He loved his brother with everything he had. This was just like what Tadashi had felt for me, when I absorbed him, right? Love...?

"Every day that I spent with you was a happy one," Hub continued, crying as well. "And finally, I have been able to meet you face to face... I've never been happier..."

Happiness. What did Megaman do to make Lan happy? What did I do that made Tadashi happy, all that time ago?

"I can't do it, Megaman!" Lan cried. "I'll do my homework! I'll wake up by myself! Just don't leave me!"

Just don't leave me... Don't... leave... I could keep them together, if I just absorbed them both. But... that... would be wrong... wrong...

Right. Wrong. Morals. I knew of them, but I didn't feel as if I needed to hold myself to them. I wasn't human, why should I be bound by the same rules as them?

... Why _shouldn't _I be bound by the same rules as them?

"Lan, nothing could replace the days I spent with you," Megaman whispered. "Thank you!"

Lan screamed Megaman's name as Megaman overloaded. The outburst of energy reached up to my surface, burning through me with a pain that rivalled the GigaFreeze's effects, opening a path back to the Pulse Transmission System.

It seemed I was wrong. The strongest navi in the world was strong enough to defeat me.

Lan escaped my grasp and was flung out of my reach. I did have the chance to take him again, to reactivate the PTS and kill his body to prevent him from returning, but I didn't. Because it would have been... wrong.

I turned my attention back to Megaman, who had expended practically all of his energy. He would be easy pickings, now...

I hesitated. What I was doing... it was wrong. But, I couldn't very well stop absorbing Megaman! The longer I dawdled, the more I put Tadashi and Wily's lives at risk. I had to stop the Giga Freeze from destroying me, but in order to do that, I had to finish with Megaman.

"I'm sorry, Megaman," I said to him. "I'll try and make this as painless as possible..."

He was weak, but still faintly conscious, and I was strong enough in him that he could hear me. He didn't know who I was, though. I think he believed it was the angel of death speaking to him.

"You're not going to die," I added, hoping that would help.

Whether it was my words or just sheer exhaustion, I couldn't tell, but he untensed somewhat at that.

It was easy from there-- so easy that it made me feel unfair. I seeped into him gently, like water into cloth, and he felt nothing but warmth and a growing connection as he melted into me.

I, however, was overwhelmed. The intensity of his emotions poured into me, stronger than any emotions I'd ever felt. Even absorbing Tadashi hadn't been like this. The pain, the loss, the love...

I felt terrible about separating him from Lan. As his power infused me, the Forbidden Program stopped tearing me apart, but somehow that only made me feel worse.

_Alpha... _It was Tadashi's voice. Somewhere in the intervening time, when I wasn't paying attention, he'd left his private lab and come back to me.

_I'm sorry for what I did to them, Tadashi. I should have just let myself be deleted. _

But the response wasn't blaming me, or criticizing me. It was a warm glow of love, the love Tadashi had always felt for me. Alpha... I'm very proud of you.

I didn't deserve it, I thought, and with a sigh I turned around to go back to SciLab. There was something I could do there to perhaps make amends, even if it would mean being locked in the containment server again. Perhaps with the help of both Dr. Hikaris, I could reunite Hub with his brother.

In the meantime...

I formed a new bedroom in Tadashi's living quarters, and put Hub in the bed. He was dozing, the events of the day having worn him out.

...I'd just have to be a good uncle to him.


End file.
